Tunisia votes Sunday in its third presidential election since the Arab Spring

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s President Kais Saied faces few obstacles to winning another term in the country’s presidential election Sunday because his major opponents have been imprisoned or left off the ballot. Five years ago, Saied rode a wave of anti-establishment backlash to win a first term. But since then, Saied has garnered criticism from Tunisia’s allies and opposition parties for rewriting Tunisia’s constitution to consolidate his own power. Authorities have arrested and imprisoned journalists, lawyers, activists and civil society figures. The presidential election is Tunisia’s third since protests led to the 2011 ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the Arab Spring and will gauge popular opinion about the trajectory that Tunisia’s fading democracy has taken since Saied took office.